Zoe Zimmerman: Her Dream

Project Statement:

“Her Dream” is a series of work that began as a means of keeping my young daughter
occupied in the studio so that I could work without sticking her in daycare. The premise
was that if she was involved in the picture taking, she would be more tolerant of hours
spent in the studio. This proved to be true. The piece that I did not predict was that the
series very quickly turned into a creative collaboration between the two of us. By the time
she was four years old, she would patiently submit to my ideas before turning my concept
on it’s head in favor of her own. More often than not, her ideas were more fluid and
spontaneous than mine.

Now, as an adolescent, my daughter dutifully reminds me to continue the work. Each
picture defines her particular developmental state and it is important to both of us that a
season or phase not go by without a whimsical document of it. The series has not been
shown in it’s entirety because, hopefully, we will never finish the project.

Artist Bio:

Zoë Zimmerman was born in Manhattan, New York, and raised from an early age in
Taos, New Mexico. At age 16 she was accepted to the Rhode Island School of Design. Her time there was spent in nearly constant conflict with her professors. She graduated in 1986, with a BFA in photography.

Directly out of college, Zoë began showing her work. She immersed herself in antique photographic processes. She produced platinum print portfolios for Aaron Siskind and albumen prints of her own work. Through the use of large format cameras and alternative processes, she honed her skills as a fine art photographer.

Zoë returned to New Mexico in 1990 where she embraced a life of creativity, family and strong community. Since then she has shown her work consistently and has striven for a balance between art-making and parenting. This dynamic and it’s graceful execution informs her life and her work to this day. Zoe’s work is in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art, The Museum of New Mexico, The Harry Ransom Center for the Humanities, and many other public and private collections. She is represented by The Photo Eye Gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico.